Old Dog, New Tricks

Well, this is embarrassing. Pictured below are my first few attempts at getting back into the Polaroid groove. They’re lovely, if you like overexposed abstract photography. The problem is that my old SX-70 camera is not equipped to handle the new 600 film — it’s about four times as sensitive as the original SX-70 film. Which means all of my photos come out overexposed.

So, can I teach this old dog of a camera a new trick? You’ll be pleased to learn that the answer is yes. I checked with some Polaroid nerds and found out that I need to do a couple of things to make my old SX-70 go with the new-fangled Impossible Project film. I already did one modification, which involved removing a tiny circular neutral density filter and replacing it with a circle cut out of a CD case. First of all, do you know how hard it is to find a CD case in my house in 2012? I got rid of those things the second I learned the word “iPod.” Secondly, do you know how hard it is to cut a circle out of plastic? Um, A LOT HARD. Anyway, it worked, a little, but it could be better. Next up I plan to procure this weird fancy lens filter that will go over the existing lens. Did you get all that? I did not. In the meantime, I’m also getting to know a Polaroid OneStep camera I forgot I even had — it’s a much newer model, relatively speaking, and is much more well-behaved than my old lady. But the thing is, I really like my old lady, and I want her to work just as well. Fingers crossed for the new filter!

I don’t know why I thought there wouldn’t be a learning curve to this — taking good Polaroids is difficult under the best of circumstances. It might take a bunch of tries, but I’m getting there. And don’t be fooled by my “Wah, this is real hard!” thing, either: I am having so much fun.

All film courtesy of The Impossible Project, who have promised not to laugh at my terrible initial efforts. Thanks, y’all!